The team investigates a serial killer who is targeting women at a small college in Flagstaff, Arizona. The BAU shuts down the campus, creates a detailed profile of the unsub, and arrests a suspect. However, the team members begin to have doubts about themselves when another woman is killed while the suspect is in custody.

Rob Owen

Phil Gallo

It has a few points going for it: Mandy Patinkin's onscreen magnetism; some truly eerie episodes; and a smartness that it wears on its sleeve. On the downside, it draws on too many other recent hits -- "CSI," "Crossing Jordan," "Medium," "House," "Law & Order: SVU""Law & Order: SVU" -- for visual style, character tics, mind games and an ability to find the truth in confounding evidence.

Barry Garron

Now and then, there are instances in which the profilers, and Gideon in particular, literally walk out of one scene and into another. It's a nice touch and a visually creative change of pace, but it's not enough -- not even with frequent shots of Patinkin's expressive face -- to distinguish this series in a particularly crowded genre.

Tim Goodman

The problem with "Criminal Minds" -- other than there are 48 series in a similar vein, 39 of them on CBS -- is that every person in this cast has an area of expertise, and they spend the hour telling you about it in the most unrealistic workplace conversations you'll ever hear.

Melanie McFarland

Ned Martel

The problem with "Criminal Minds" is its many confusing maladies, applied to too many characters. As a result, the cast seems like a spilled trunk of broken toys, with which the audience - and perhaps the creators - may quickly become bored.